Two women claim body of same man

Jayantha de Silva

The Coroner's Court had become the focal point for cases involving women who claim that a particular body was that of her husband, said PS 27689 Lal Pathirana Court Officer to the ‘Daily News'.

It is frequent that two or more women claiming the body of a man to perform last rights.

In some instances the man had resorted to polygamous marriages with the knowledge of the women.

A case in point was when two women with children who were present at a Coroner's inquest recently clashed with eash other over the body of a man who had died of natural causes.

Both claimed the deceased was their husband.

The fracas kicked off when City Coroner Edward Ahangama who held the inquest into the death of Muthuwa Andige Dayananda (55), a driver of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, decided to hand over the body to the mistress.

Outside the Court, the woman, Edirisinghe Arachige Mallika (46) proudly proclaimed “I won” sparking a row which compelled her to flee with her children in a three wheeler to the abuse of the wife and the three children of the man.

Mallika revealed that she had married him knowing that he was married to Kankanam Arachchilage Vijitha Mallika also (46) when latter had left him for foreign employment.